News, observations and reader questions about the Sacramento Kings and the NBA.

November 6, 2013

*DeMarcus Cousins should have been mad at Dennis Schroeder for catching him with a shot to his groin era in the fourth quarter.

He then picked up a fifth foul for pushing Al Horford that was downgraded from flagrant foul 1.

"They ran straight to the camera to see if it was a flagrant," Cousins said. "That was my frustration."

Last season Cousins upset O.J. Mayo, who was playing for Dallas, by hitting him in the crotch, which Cousins maintained was an accident. He was stills suspended for a game.

*Malone took the blame for Cousins second consecutive game in which he failed to put up the dominant numbers that he did in his first two games.

Cousins had 11 points, six rebounds, two assists and five fouls. Cousins got off to a good start with six points and two assists in the first quarter.

"I think that we can give credit to Al Horford because he did a great job of guarding DeMarcus Cousins. The Hawks made it so that he had a hard time finishing in the post. Once again, I have to do a better job of getting him more looks and putting him in better positions on the floor to alleviate some of that pressure for him so maybe he can carry us a little more offensively. That's something that I've been looking at when I watch the film and I'm going to try to help him out. He is the key to our team and he obviously didn't have the night that we all hoped that he would. We will get back to it tomorrow at practice."

*Cousins has faced two top-level centers now - Horford and Andrew Bogut in his last two games. Cousins is averaging 9.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in his last two games.

In his first two games Cousins averaged 27 points and 12 rebounds.

*The second and third quarters were especially bad for the Kings. Atlanta outscored the Kings 57-33. The Kings actually started the game

The Kings actually started well on Tuesday, for a change. But the inability to sustain the effort is what is holding the Kings back and why they are 1-3.

"We won the first quarter," Malone said. "We came out and our starters did a lot of good things during that first quarter, but throughout the course of the game, the effort wasn't there."

*Malone sat Cousins midway through the fourth quarter with the five fouls. Because the group that was in the game played well, Malone did not put him back in the game.

*More on the lineup that finished the game.

Malone stayed with the lineup with the Kings down 103-100 with 9.3 seconds to play that got the Kings back in the game.

That was Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Thornton, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes.

That meant not going back to Ben McLemore, who was having a good game.

The rookie had 15 points in 23 minutes, including 3 of 7 on three pointers.